Sunday, July 19, 2015

every shade of green

As we promised the mythical Mustafa last summer, we returned to Sivrikaya this May to hire him as our guide into the high altitude pastures in search of the Caucasian Grouse, which we failed to see on our two previous attempts. We had four days in the Kaçkars, and we were geared up with more weather-appropriate clothes this time, ready to climb as high as we needed to, determined to see that bird.

As soon as the hills before us were coloured in every shade of green imaginable, I felt the tension of a city of 14 million leave my shoulders. The pollution, noise, traffic, and crowds of Istanbul fell so far away...